27/03/2025 

My Dante, 

Jaime is missing! 

Our son! Missing! 

I cannot find him anywhere. I’ve looked everywhere for Jaime. All the places we visited along the way. And nothing! 

I am truly in hell, Dante. A living hell. 

I’m stuck in a foreign country, in a strange hotel where no one wants to help me, and our son is now missing. My little Jaime. 

I don’t understand how he disappeared. He was right with me just minutes before he went missing. Here, in this hotel room. I don’t understand. I saw him sitting right here. 

I left him in the room for only a minute as I made my way downstairs to the concierge. But before I hopped on the lift, I forgot I didn’t bring our passports with me. But when I came back to the room to get our passports, that’s when I realized Jaime wasn’t there. I was only gone for a single minute. Maybe less. I swear! I was looking at our baby just as I was closing the door. How could he have disappeared when I opened it again. Where is my little boy? 

I’m growing scared, Dante! Things are not going the way they’re supposed to be. I meant it. I am scared. I don’t know if I am going mad, but everything is not the way it’s supposed to be. You don’t understand, Dante. Everything is wrong! Life is…. Wrong! You don’t understand. Jaime is missing, but something else is wrong. 

Everything of Jaime’s is also gone. Everything! And not in a disappearing sort of gone. But more in a ‘his existence has been erased’ sort of gone. 

I’m scared, Dante. I don’t know who would want to do this to our poor boy. But I am terrified. And I don’t know what I can do. 

Please, Dante! Come down here to Bzalnia as soon as you get this letter. Please!  

I don’t know what to do. But all I know is that I am not leaving until I get Jaime back. I am his mother! I will never leave my son behind. 

Everything has gone completely wrong. It’s making me so confused and stressed. I think I have truly walked into hell, itself. Because everything I know in life is now proving incorrect. 

Life is playing a pitiful joke on me, and it is not funny. Jaime is missing, for heaven’s sake! 

How he disappeared is a complete mystery. And I hate that because that’s my son that’s gone! And it’s not supposed to be a mystery puzzle. Someone must be responsible for what happened. I can’t figure out how or who, but I refuse to believe his disappearance is just an unexplainable phenomenon. 

The windows of this hotel room do not open, Dante. It’s thick, solid glass. I searched the whole room for any secret hatches or doorways. Nothing. The carpet is fixed securely, and there is a lot of heavy furniture on top. The walls are mostly bare, only small paintings and a tiny, short bookshelf that I moved and checked. There are no secret ways to get into this room. There is nowhere to hide in here. It makes no sense how Jaime disappeared. 

The room door is in sight of the lift. When I closed the room door and crossed the hallway to the lift, nobody was about. I would have known if anybody entered the room. They would have had to pass me. And besides, management told me that we were the only ones on this floor. 

I’m so confused, Dante! I am scared and confused. I just want Jaime back. But everything gets more confusing. 

When I say everything of Jaime’s is gone, I mean everything! All of his clothes, his luggage bag, his little toy horse, and even the medicine we bought him at the summer carnival. I keep those herbs in my own bag. But still. Gone! Everything! 

Am I going mad? I brought Jame with me! I remember! On the trip when we left Palion, Jaime was so tired that he fell asleep on my arm. I remember putting my arm around him to keep him warm. I remember whenever I tried to carry his bag he would protest and say, “No, Mommy! I’m a man! I can carry it myself.” I remember how obsessed he was with the fancy mailbox outside this damned hotel.  

Jaime was with me the whole time. But now he’s not here. I take my eyes off him for one minute, and now he is gone. I want to scream! 

I did scream. Just now. And before, when I realized he was missing. I was so loud that the hotel staff came straight to our room. I told them what was wrong, but these imbeciles are not helping! They’re telling me to stay calm. What do they mean “stay calm”? My son is missing! 

This is where I know everything has gone wrong, or that I’ve gone mad. 

The hotel staff brought me downstairs to talk to the manager. I don’t trust that man, by the way. His eyes scare me. And I don’t know if he is part of this trouble, but he has only made everything more unbelievable. 

I told that damned hotel manager that Jaime is missing, and he just looked at me as if I was insane. He said that I checked in alone. When I asked if he remembered the little nine year old boy with me, he just shook his head. Absolute lies! I remember the manager looking at Jaime. I remember! When Jaime was bouncing and playing with his toy horse on the front counter, I remember the manager was watching him and smiled. He smiled! He smiled at our son! 

I screamed at the man and cursed him for smiling at Jaime, but he just raised his hands as if he was innocent and shook his head. And then he showed me something that scared me. The hotel’s record books. 

The records showed that I checked in alone. It couldn’t be true. I remember signing off for two guests. Me and Jaime. But when I looked at the records, it only checked in for me alone. Signed and dated.  

I checked the page before mine because I remember hearing the guest before me saying his own name. Norton Smith. His records were there. Signed and dated. 

There were already so many guests checked in and signed before and after me. I don’t know if the hotel manager had forged these records. I flicked through a ton of pages, but the manager told me to stop, for the sake of confidentiality. 

The record book did seem real. So, I had to check my page again. I just couldn’t believe it. There was no trace of Jaime. But my signature was there and true. 

I scanned the page hard, confused at what I was seeing. I was about to rip the page off, but the manager quickly grabbed my arm before I could. He somehow knew what I was going to do. He is scary, I tell you. And I just don’t know if I trust him. He’s been offering to help, but things only got worse. 

The phone lines here in Peetsurg and many surrounding cities have been down. Apparently, a problem related to when the old Bzalnian King was overthrown. I don’t know. There didn’t seem to be a problem like this when we came into the country. I didn’t believe the manager, so I went outside and asked other shops. I even asked pedestrians and cars passing by. They all said the side the same thing. “No phone” because “No old king”. Is this whole blasting country involved in abducting Jaime. I don’t know who to trust. 

We somehow got hold of the police, but they’re no help. With no phone line, there’s not much they can do. 

We tried to think of what we could do or who could help. I told them that maybe my aunty could help. Skana. The old duchess of Vyed. But they all shook their heads and told me a small area like Vyed had very little influence or sway within this state of Ezza, where Peetsurg is situated. And because she was of the old king, she could likely do little. 

To me, she had to be able to at least help somehow. I told them that she was scheduled to meet me here at the hotel tonight. But the manager just shook his head and said that there was no record of her ever coming. Another disappointment. I truly hope she still comes tonight. She will be the only one who can help me find Jaime. And if she doesn’t come, what am I supposed to do? Write her a stupid letter like I have to write you now? 

Dante, there is one more thing that is bothering me about Jaime’s disappearance. 

The police officer asked me for details of how to help identify Jaime. What he was wearing, his hair, his size and shape. Then I thought it would be a good idea to show them our family photo. But when I gave them the photo, they all gave me bothered looks. The hotel manager and police officers shook their heads at each other. When I asked them what was wrong, they gave me back the picture. 

Nobody was in the picture. Not you, not Jaime, not even Pads when he was a little puppy. The picture was just me, sitting alone. I think I have gone mad. I am alone in this picture. I don’t even remember having a picture taken alone, let alone this one. I still remember when we took the picture. Jaime’s 7^th Birthday, when we got him Pads. Yet I am alone in this picture. Why would I even carry a picture of me alone? Like I am some mad woman. And I hate this because everyone is starting to look at me as if I am raving mad. I am not! I just lost my son. What happened to the picture? Why am I sitting alone? Am I mad? 

I still have my wedding band on my finger. It’s the only evidence I have left of you. But it proves nothing of Jaime. I showed them all my wedding band, but they’re all giving me that damned look. I know what they’re thinking of me. But they don’t understand. Do they know how to feels to lose their child? I think not. It’s horrible, Dante. Horrible. I don’t know what to do. 

The manager told me to go upstairs and get some rest. He also told me he would cover the cost of any food and drink I want. Like that would even matter. I want my son back. 

Now I’m just waiting for Aunty Skana to arrive. I hope she can help. I need help, Dante. 

Please come to Peetsurg as soon as you get this letter. I won’t leave until I have Jaime back. 

I’ll be in Room 1309 of the old Hotel Mysteria. 

Please come here, Dante. I need you now. Our son needs you. We need you. Please.

Love from, 

Ani 

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